Triple Olympic Gold medalist Stephanie Rice sets a winning tone for the tenth edition of the TCS World 10K

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“Every Gold Medal of mine is as special”

19 May 2017, Bengaluru: Post an eventful journey to Bengaluru including being diverted to Chennai due to bad weather, Stephanie Rice, the International Event Ambassador to the TCS World 10K did not look a least bit perturbed and jet lagged when she entered the media centre at Kanteerava in Bangalore. Excited to be back in a country that she feels she has always known, Stephanie reiterated that the race on Sunday, was yet again going to be won on 80% mental strength and 20% on the physical training that had gone in to lead up to the day.

With three gold medals in the Beijing Olympics in three different world record times, Stephanie still believes that Beijing was a blessing, sharing, “I have so much gratitude for everything lining up perfectly in Beijing and to win three gold medals and to experience everything I have and to have opportunities like I have today to be an ambassador for the TCS World 10k, all of those things came from the hard work and the achievements of swimming so I do feel blessed.” Elaborating further on her dream run at Beijing, when pressed on for further information on her time there and her favourite moment there, she finally admitted that each Olympic Gold Medal was as important and significant stating, “All the three gold medals were so different! The first one I got in the 400 Metre medley, was the first day of the meet and my first race at an Olympic games and to win that medal was just a huge achievement. Also that was first gold medal Australia won in the Beijing Olympics, so pretty significant. Prior to my second Gold Medal, I actually got really sick before it, and then I thought to myself I’ve got to just try, got to give it a go! And when I won that race, I reminded myself that if while not being healthy I can still win if I’ve set my mind to just giving it the best I got, that race was a lot more empowering, and that gave me a lot of confidence. And the third race was a relay and it was really nice being a part of a team, with friends! So all these were really different and now you can see why I can’t pick a favourite because they all hold really special values to me”

But, with World Record Times in the pool being broken so often, how significant has the world record time really become? Stephanie believes that there are three aspects of being a World Record holder, sharing that, “To be the best in the world you obviously have to have some level natural ability and be blessed with talent. Then you have to work really hard, be mentally prepared and just grind it out and be innovative in the way you train, but also work hard and keep up with the new research on how to train and eat better. And then you can collaborate all those things and then you have to leave it to chance.” continuing on adding, “That’s why people keep improving because there’s always new research and innovations to make them better swimmers and World Record Breakers.”

But this world record breaker is now a retired athlete and is as happy with the title of ‘Retired Athlete and now Entrepruener, admitting, “The biggest thing I went through after my swimming career was to figure out who is Stephanie Rice away from the media spotlights and the gold medals and what do I stand for and what I want to do and I have a passion for helping others to be the best that they can be, inspiring people to live healthy, holistic lives and in anyway that I can motivate or inspire other people specially into sport so I started my own business for kids swimwear because I’m so passionate about helping kids and swimwear is something that I always wanted to do. I also have written a book around holistic development and do a lot of motivational work around mindset and mentoring some of the current Olympians and some of the recently retired Olympians in the journey after sports.”

As Stephanie Rice left the media room for yet another of her obligations at the tenth edition of the World’s premier 10K, she did not want to end the day without reiterating that she has a passionate relationship with India, and will keep coming back to build a stronger association with the country. Photos By. – Ananth kumar.P.K